ABSTRACT
Learning and development are influenced by culture and experience from birth: indeed, even earlier. International comparisons tend to show considerably better arithmetical performance by children in some countries than in others. Children from countries in the Far East, such as Singapore and China tend to perform better in arithmetic than do children in Europe and, even more so, in America. One of the cultural characteristics that could influence children’s arithmetical development is the way in which numbers and arithmetical relationships are expressed in a language. Parental social class is an important predictor of children’s academic performance in all subjects, including mathematics. Ann DOwker found that, while social class did have some effect on children’s use of derived fact strategies in addition and subtraction, this effect ceased to be significant after controlling for IQ. Among children with equal amounts of schooling, children with vending experience used more derived fact strategies, whereas those without vending experience relied more on well-learned, school-taught algorithms.
